Hot 103-5 Huntsville question

[RollTide]

A question for anyone who might know. Just out of curiosity, does Stroh ever plan on trying to obtain translators in Athens and Decatur for Hot 103-5 in Huntsville. Those cities are part of the Huntsville arbitron market and 103.5's signal is weak in those areas (especially Athens). It would be a good idea.

 

[Nate Wesley]

Is there any room on the dial to add translators to those locales? Knowing that there are plenty in use for other larger stations, I'd have my doubts.

 

[RollTide]

I would imagine it would be harder to find one in Decatur than Athens, but I'm sure they could find atleast one frequency that could be used. I did a potential open channel search which shows 105.1 as a great possibility for athens (where they need help with coverage the most). It also showed 98.1 as a possibility for Decatur but it would have to be placed in south Decatur so it doesn't interfere with 98.1 in Capshaw. It's worth a shot though I would think. Their competition, WEUP's covarage is strong in Athens and Decatur but weak in Huntsville. It's the opposite for Hot 103-5, so I would imagine they would look into trying to improve on that coverage in some way.

 

[Nate Wesley]

Their competition, WEUP's covarage is strong in Athens and Decatur but weak in Huntsville. It's the opposite for Hot 103-5, so I would imagine they would look into trying to improve on that coverage in some way.

WEUP's example is different because they were complementing their original AM at 1600, and the owners couldn't quite get full powered FM coverage over all of the Huntsville metro (or Huntsville itself).

Given WHWT's superior downtown coverage without translators, I'm not sure if Decatur or Athens coverage is really all that important to Stroh Communications--at least in the present.

 

[RollTide]

Actually when WBUZ 102-9 The Buzz in Nashville moved further north several years back (before 103.5 was put on the auction block as an open frequency by the FCC) WEUP had a couple of years opportunity to move 103.1 several miles closer into Huntsville and greatly improve their coverage in the city of Huntsville, but they didn't do it. I don't really know why either other than maybe laziness i guess. I saw the, what would have been, coverage map for 103.1 on the FCC reps computer and it would have brought city grade thru almost all of the city of Huntsville. They missed a HUGE opportunity there that they will probably never get back.

When I worked in radio in Huntsville not long ago, a much larger portion of the Huntville numbers came from Decatur and Athens (especially Decatur) than you might think. They put a LOT of diaries out in those areas and those areas have large numbers of the demo he is trying to reach. If Stroh is thinking those areas aren't that important, he might want to reconsider that.